A copy of a court document posted on Facebook shows the administration of Michigan's fourth-largest university used false information to halt a strike by the faculty union.
The more than 600 members of the Faculty Association, or FA, at Central Michigan University went on strike Sunday night, about 12 hours before classes were to start on Monday morning. A county judge ordered the Faculty Association members back to work on Monday. (I posted about the strike and bargaining struggles on Monday.)
The temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction filed by CMU that stopped the supposedly illegal strike claimed that the FA's strike would force "CMU to cancel all of its classes." This is false. A number of news outlets reported Monday that students were still expected to report to class. Only classes taught by FA members were affected; many were taught by graduate students, teaching assistants and other non-FA members.
The document also states the following piece of false information: "If this illegal strike is permitted to continue, CMU will soon be forced to cancel the entire Fall Semester of 2011." At no time did any member of the CMU administration publicly state they were seriously considering cancelling the entire semester if the work stoppage were to continue.
The court document as posted on the Friends of CMU Faculty Facebook group is below: